Jumbos constantly find themselves being graded - papers, exams, problem sets and sometimes even participation all receive grades from professors throughout the semester.
But when registration period rolls around at Tufts, the most important 'grades' are those given by students. Popular sites such as TuftsReviews.com and RateMyProfessors.com are frequented by Jumbos when it comes time to decide what classes to enroll in or, more precisely, which professors to choose.
"Professors beware," RateMyProfessors.com warns. "Students are doing the grading." Self-proclaimed as the Internet's largest listing of college professor ratings, the free Web site is an online forum for students from the United States, Canada and Ireland to share critiques of their professors.
The site currently contains 6.3 million ratings of professors from approximately 6,000 schools, with "thousands of new ratings added each day," according to the site description.
The site's rating system enables students to assess their professors anonymously in categories such as "helpfulness," "clarity," and "easiness." Students provide a "score" from one to five for each category, and may post anonymous comments about their professors for other students to see.
A professor's "score card" lists the professor's name, department, total number of ratings, average overall quality and average ease.
In addition to academic assessments, students can rate their professors as "hot" or "not" using a chili pepper icon. The RateMyProfessors.com homepage includes a list of the hottest professors nationwide, none of whom are Jumbos.
At Tufts, the Web site TuftsReviews.com serves a similar mission, aspiring to become a "collection of reviews written by students for students," according to the site. It is different from RateMyProfessors.com, however, in that it allows students to review professors' specific courses, and allows students to search both by course and by professor.
But while both sites self-assert their popularity and helpfulness, do Tufts students actually read them? And do the ratings on the site determine which courses Jumbos take?
Some students, such as junior Elise Vondohlen and sophomore Janice Wong, are avid users of the sites - especially RateMyProfessors.com.
"I check out professors and read reviews right around registration time," Vondohlen said. "I often base decisions on what I read. I guess I really do give it some authority."
Wong agreed. "I use both sites [RateMyProfessors and TuftsReviews], but TuftsReviews doesn't seem to be as recent," she said.
Still, the girls agreed, the system isn't wholly reliable and neither Vondohlen nor Wong have actually written reviews there.
"You have to take the whole thing with a grain of salt," Wong said.
Junior Ted Pei is a heavy user of the two sites.
"I've been using both extensively since sophomore year," he said. "But TuftsReviews is better because the comments are longer and more thorough. I look at Professors' ratings and go with it. It's essential for choosing classes."
Freshman Grace Jeong agreed to a lesser degree.
"I use RateMyProfessors to confirm what I already suspected or knew about certain professors," Jeong said.
Nonetheless, the site has never really changed her mind about taking a class.
"It [the site] hasn't been all that important to me, but I know it has been important to others," she said.
Sophomore Alicia Evangelides had similar sentiments.
"Reviews on RateMyProfessor have factored in to my decision in the past, but more in the sense that they have made me confident about my choices," she said.
Sophomore Stephanie St. Thomas said she uses the site frequently.
"I often check out reviews to assess how hard a professor grades or how difficult their class is going to be," she said.
But St. Thomas said the site has its flaws as well.
"It's not always that helpful because the reviews are always one extreme or the other - either someone hated a professor or loved them," St. Thomas said.
Senior Matt Dalton explained how he utilized the site.
"I used it as a freshman when I didn't know any professors ... but it's not all that accurate because not enough students post on it," he said.
Of course, professors themselves are not unaware that sites like RateMyProfessors and TuftsReviews exist. Assistant Professor of Anthropology Sarah Pinto said she's unsure about them.
"I have taken a look at these sites and, like many of my colleagues, find the whole thing a bit strange and off-putting, especially the chili pepper component," she said.
Pinto said she doesn't see the sites as very important to students or professors.
"[It's] not really my concern, [so] I don't think about it all that much," Pinto said. "I can't imagine anyone, student or faculty, taking these things seriously."
Freshman Andrew Nelson felt similarly. "I've heard of it, but I've never used it," he said. "I'm an engineer - classes are limited, and I take what I can get."
Senior Ameer Shah on the other hand, expressed regret at not having utilized the services provided by the websites earlier.
"I've never even visited either Web site ... but now I wish I had," he said.
